As if Ciudadanos hadn’t had enough, the civil war for leadership has broken out. “It could be expected but not today,” says a source inside the party. Three weeks ago the relationship between Inés Arrimadas and Edmundo Bal became complicated. Last Friday there was a truce but far from getting closer they have completely broken, so much so that the State lawyer announced this Friday that she is going to appear in the primaries to dispute the position of Arrimadas. Bal wants her to stop being “the face” of Ciudadanos, but he wants above all an ideological turn in the formation, close sources defend.
Bal would thus represent the less conservative soul of the oranges, who do not share Arrimadas’s strategy of giving up being a pivotal party capable of agreeing to the left and right. “We have to be between the PP and the PSOE, not between the PP and Vox”, points out a leader of the nucleus closest to Bal. The project is clear: to correct the reactionary drift.
When Edmundo Bal explained his candidacy to become leader of Ciudadanos to journalists, he did so: “You will say that I am a person who likes to get into trouble.” The polls right now give them a total of zero deputies in Congress, and the expectations for the regional elections are also disastrous. They trust a little more in the municipal ones because of the importance that proximity to the candidate usually takes on, although not much, so it could be said that yes, it is a “mess”.
But Bal has the support of the parliamentary group, where he has forged solid alliances based on hours of shared work, and also has the support of an important part of the formation. Above all, Ciudadanos sources point out, since the possibility that Arrimadas did not want to step aside once the refoundation process was completed was put on the table.
Since the result in Andalusia, which plunged the party into absolute depression, criticism of Arrimadas has been in crescendo. She then saved the furniture by asking the party to allow her to lead the refoundation and once it was completed she would make her position available to the members, but the proposal for a two-headed party in which she would continue as political leader angered several leaders. “It seems to me that it may be a good idea,” defended Arrimadas.
The bases reject bicephaly
This Friday the newspaper The country revealed that the bases had voted otherwise. According to this information, to the question “In Spain and in Europe there are different party models, which do you think is more suitable for the new stage?”, only 5% opted for a “PNV-style model, where the party leadership is the one that chooses the leadership and makes organic and strategic decisions, among which is the choice of the candidate without primaries.” The preferred option, with 53%, was that “the authority be distributed among the national leadership, mainly, but also the territories.” That is to say, without substantial changes but with more distribution of power and less “Caesarism”, points out a leader.
The work of the team that was formed to carry out the refoundation process has been totally secret and it was agreed that the results would be confidential. The same publication also reveals that 70% of the bases want to change the name of the party.
weave alliances
At the close of this information, Arrimadas has not yet reacted publicly to Bal’s announcement, but if he decides to test him in the primaries in January, Ciudadanos affiliates will have to choose between two different lists. The State lawyer has already warned, “I am not going to go alone”, and sources close to him tell Public who sees the game won
The heiress of Albert Rivera is supported by the deputy Guillermo Diaz– “the only one left here”, says another member of the party- begona villacisdeputy mayor of Madrid or the deputy of Parliament, Carlos Carrizosa. The battle for organic power of a party with minimal political power is expected to be bloody.
